The first switch didn't work so well for me. It was close enough that I
could almost knock it around with my rolled-up whip, so I tried to do
that, but it ended up sticking to the lever and didn't really pull it.

Ah.
I intended for the first one to be easy to just switch with the torch
or rolled up whip, but it may be just a tad too far away. I don't know
if I can move it closer (the level design is quite dictated by a grid
like layout) but I'll at least try to make the rolled up whip better at
"pushing" things instead of getting stuck.

At first I
didn't know what to do with those flying scarab beetles and so it took
me 2 tries to kill them. I figured it out, though.

Do you have any thoughts on if there's anything that could make this encounter more interesting? Less confusing? Better?

Half-joking tiny criticism: I'm afraid of snakes, and the whip reminded
me a little bit of a snake. I'm not sure that's avoidable with a whip.
Anyway, if you get other users who are afraid of snakes, maybe they can
confirm, but you should probably just ignore me. It was playable; I
just tried not to do the coil motion too much, 'cause it freaked me out a
little.

>Do you have any thoughts on if there's anything that could make this encounter more interesting? Less confusing? Better?

As I think someone else mentioned, I wasn't sure I was damaging them. Maybe some indication of that, like if they flashed red when I scored a hit. As it is now, it kinda just felt like I was pushing them away but not making progress. A health bar or something would work but I could understand that would ruin the immersion quite a bit. Also, I wasn't sure if I should be trying to use torch or whip for them, so some kind of indication (whip hits turn them red for a second, torch hits don't? torch actually lights them on fire and then they die?) might help, too.

>Ah. I intended for the first one to be easy to just switch with the torch or rolled up whip, but it may be just a tad too far away. I don't know if I can move it closer (the level design is quite dictated by a grid like layout) but I'll at least try to make the rolled up whip better at "pushing" things instead of getting stuck.

Oh! I didn't even think to use the torch. I was so excited to try the whip mechanics...

>an item on my todo-list to investigate creating a room where there's snakes on the floor.Lol, comes with the territory, I guess! :)

>Do you have any thoughts on if there's anything that could make this encounter more interesting? Less confusing? Better?

I have a tiny comment about this. When i first beat them one fell down on the path of the rolling platform. It would have been immensely satisfying if the rolling platform actually crushed the scarab, instead of clipping through. Maybe this could even be a mechanic later in the game, to actively need to whip some enemies into paths of platforms.